We’ve spent a fun-filled week exploring the history, art, and science of gardening with our Garden Stories event. Seed and nursery catalogs and lists played a starring role in our campaign, allowing us to explore the world of gardening through the instruments that informed, documented, shaped, and transformed the industry.

As our journey this week has demonstrated, seed and nursery catalogs and lists allow us to trace the development of the seed industry, agriculture, and the home garden, documenting the rise, decline, and development of new plant varieties and prices; changing agricultural and printing technologies; the individuals who shaped the industry; the evolution of garden fashion and landscape design; the introduction of chemical agents for insect and weed control; early methods of cleaning, preserving, and shipping seeds; and cultural and social dynamics such as the effects of and reactions to scientific advancement, global wars, and the shifting roles of women in society and business.

Because of their cultural, historic, and scientific importance, many BHL partners are engaged in a variety of projects to digitize and improve access to the seed and nursery catalogs and lists in their collections. As we wind things down in our Garden Stories event, we invite you to explore the exciting world of seed catalogs in the Biodiversity Heritage Library consortium.

As one of NAL’s most frequently used collections with an appeal to a wide-ranging audience, the Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection was a natural candidate for digitization. In 2013, NAL began digitizing the collection with Internet Archive which operates a scanning center at NAL. As of February 2015, NAL has cataloged all of its U.S seed catalogs through 1923 and digitized over 13,000 seed catalogs, including all of its U.S. catalogs through 1906 as well as its entire collection of catalogs from long-established firms such as Peter Henderson & Co., and woman-owned firms such as Miss Ella V. Baines. The Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection will remain a focus of NAL’s digitization work with Internet Archive for the foreseeable future. Started in 1904 by USDA’s first economic botanist, Percy Leroy Ricker, the National Agricultural Library’s (NAL) Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection consists of over 200,000 American and foreign catalogs. The earliest catalogs date from the late 1700s, but the collection is strongest from the 1890s to the present.

In 2013, the Biodiversity Heritage Library engaged in an ambitious project to explore the applicability of purposeful gaming to tackle a significant challenge for digital libraries today: poor output from Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. OCR allows a computer to “read” the text on a digitized page and produce a searchable text file for each page image that allows users to more easily discover content relevant to their needs.

Led by the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Center for Biodiversity Informatics (CBI) and in partnership with Harvard University, Cornell University, and the New York Botanical Garden, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)-funded project, Purposeful Gaming, will demonstrate whether or not digital games are a successful tool for analyzing and improving outputs from OCR and transcription activities because large numbers of users can be harnessed quickly and efficiently to focus on the review and correction of particularly problematic words by being presented the task as a game.

As part of Purposeful Gaming, project participants are digitizing seed and nursery catalogs and lists because these documents are great examples of materials that are notoriously difficult subjects for OCR to parse. The picturesque fonts and elaborate page layouts so endearingly characteristic of seed catalogs cause the resulting OCR output to be error prone and less than optimal. By identifying unique catalogs and lists in their collections and integrating them into the BHL Seed and Nursery Catalog Collection, transcription sites, and purposeful games, participating institutions are helping us enhance our OCR and improve access to not only these catalogs and lists but the entire BHL collection as well.

Seed catalogs and Index Semina – What’s the difference and why do we care

As described, Purposeful Gaming involves digitization of historic seed catalogs and seed lists, or index semina. What is the difference? Beautifully illustrated seed catalogues were issued regularly by seed companies to list their current selection available for sale. The catalogues occasionally included plants that were not only new to the garden, but also new to science. Similarly, the far less colorful seed lists were issued and exchanged by botanical gardens to facilitate the free exchange of new seed acquisitions and also included plant species new to science.

The seed lists were published and circulated in limited numbers and were often considered ephemeral so they were not generally deposited in libraries. Today no library in the world has a complete set. BHL partners have joined forces to digitize their collections to form a virtual set that is nearly complete and are far more accessible to botanists and everyone around the world.As described, Purposeful Gaming involves digitization of historic seed catalogs and seed lists, or index semina. What is the difference? Beautifully illustrated seed catalogues were issued regularly by seed companies to list their current selection available for sale. The catalogues occasionally included plants that were not only new to the garden, but also new to science. Similarly, the far less colorful seed lists were issued and exchanged by botanical gardens to facilitate the free exchange of new seed acquisitions and also included plant species new to science.

Nierembergia frutescens is just one example of a plant that was first named and described in a seed exchange list. This beautiful flowering herb is a member of the Solanaceae or Nightshade family. It was first named in 1866 by the French botanist Michel Charles Durieu de Maisonneue. He described the plant in great detail while advertising the availability of seeds of this new species to his colleagues in Catalogue des graines récoltées en. 1866, issued by Jardin-des-plantes de la ville de Bordeaux.

With many Purposeful Gaming-affiliated institutions involved in digitizing seed and nursery catalogs, alongside the significant digitization underway at the National Agricultural Library (NAL), it can be difficult to ensure that the same catalog is not digitized by multiple libraries. Recognizing this challenge, Cornell University’s Mann Library developed a process to identify and digitize the unique seed catalogs in their collection.

The first step in this process was to collect metadata about the seed catalogs held by BHL institutions currently digitizing these works. This was done using Excel spreadsheets with matching columns. The merging of the metadata was complicated by differing cataloging processes among various institutions. For instance, NAL catalogs each seed catalog as a monograph whereas Cornell catalogs them as serials based on the firm name. To further complicate the situation, Cornell also cataloged the firms for which they have only a handful of catalogs in alphabetic ranges by firm name.

After the metadata for the seed catalogs in applicable institutions was merged into one large spreadsheet, it was necessary to try to match up the varying firm names. For example, one institution might have a firm cataloged as John W. Adams, whereas another institution may have JW Adams, Adams JW, or even John W Adams & Sons. Additionally many firms changed names over time.

Mann decided to use Google Refine in an attempt to standardize firm names. Using Google Refine’s Cluster option they were able to match up various firm names used for the same firm. (For more on clustering methods, please see https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/wiki/Clustering-In-Depth). If requested, Google Refine will change the firm names in the spreadsheet to use a common firm name for each. This allowed the resulting spreadsheet to be sorted by firm so that all metadata for one firm appeared together in the spreadsheet. Mann Library then reviewed the spreadsheet manually to see what firms or seed catalog publication years are uniquely held by them, avoiding the scanning of material already digitized by other BHL institutions.

Gaming to Enhance Collections

So we’ve covered digitizing the catalog and list collections. How then will Purposeful Gaming use video games to decipher difficult-to-read texts–such as seed and nursery catalogs–that cannot easily be read by OCR software?

Here’s how it works: an original catalog is scanned, and the image uploaded to BHL. The image is then uploaded to a transcription portal, where volunteers type out the text that would be too difficult for a computer to read (thanks to all who have helped us transcribe seed catalogs this week!). Multiple transcriptions of the same text are then incorporated into the video game, which identifies discrepancies between them. The task of the player is to correctly transcribe the text in question through a creative video game interface. Eventually, games like this could help create searchable versions of seed and nursery catalogs, increasing their value to historians and horticulturalists alike.

Beta versions of the games are being tested right now, and we hope to release them this summer. Stay tuned to our blog and social media for more updates. In the meantime, you can help inform the game development by transcribing seed and nursery catalogs today! Learn more.

“Everyday, in museums, public gardens, zoos, and so many other places, you expose our children to new ideas and inspire them to stretch their imaginations. You teach them new skills and new ways of thinking. And you instill a love of learning that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Every day, you all make such a difference in the lives of our children. And that’s why I’m so excited to work with you on an issue that is so critical to their health and well-being.”

Kids climbing the 10-foot carrot at the Children’s Museum of the Treasure Coast in Jensen Beach, FL

Since then, the national initiative has provided opportunities for millions of museum and garden visitors to learn about healthy food choices and physical activity through interactive exhibits and programs.

Through Let’s Move! Museums & Gardens, nearly 700 museums of all types have come together to support this national initiative to address the issues of childhood obesity and the promotion of healthier lifestyles. These museums impact all 50 states and the District of Columbia, ensuring that communities throughout the country have access to healthy programming, activities, and food services.

The Strong in Rochester, NY joined Let’s Move! Museums & Gardens initiative in 2011. The museum promotes an active lifestyle through its educational programs and public programming. Thanks to a partnership with local business and foundations, the museum will welcome hundreds of underserved school-age children and their families for Fit Kids Day on March 21.

Museums and gardens are core community institutions. They are trusted organizations in their communities and have the capacity to influence real and sustained behavior change. With their impressive reach and great potential for impact, museums and gardens are launching community efforts to create a healthier generation using interactive exhibits, outdoor spaces, gardens, and programs that encourage families to eat healthy foods and increase physical activity.

As we celebrate the fifth anniversary of Let’s Move!, we invite you to visit your local Let’s Move! museum or garden. If your local museum is not yet participating, have them sign up today! They’ll be able join all the other Let’s Move! museums and gardens that are contributing to healthier communities.

Let’s Move! Museums & Gardens is led by the Institute of Museum and Library Services in partnership with the American Alliance of Museums, the Association of Children’s Museums, the American Public Garden Association, the American Association for State and Local History, the Association of African American Museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Association of Nature Center Administrators, the Association of Science-Technology Centers, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

IMLS takes a keen interest in the many ways museums and libraries adapt to serve the changing needs of their communities. In the same way, we at IMLS need to recognize the shifting realities of our own museum and library stakeholders. Our IMLS Focus initiative, begun last year with a series of three convenings, successfully helped us to garner public participation and informed our strategic priorities for the year. We’re excited about a reprisal of these efforts again this year.

Last year’s three spring Focus convenings were centered on timely issues in the library field (National Digital Platform, Learning Spaces, and STEM) and aimed to convey the agency’s goals and gather feedback around those goals. About 150 people participated in person and 1,500 participated via livestream in these invitational events, offering us a wonderful opportunity to interact with and listen to leaders in the field. We had extremely helpful conversations about our impact on practice and the field in general. As a result, our 2015 grant guidelines reflected important new directions in the field.

Andrea Saenz (Chicago Public Library), Erica Compton (Idaho Commission for Libraries), and Susan Nutter (NC State University Libraries) helped set the stage for the Learning Spaces meeting in May 2014.

I am pleased to share the news that the Office of Library Services will hold another round of spring invitational meetings under the banner of IMLS Focus. Once again, these convenings will help us shine a light on our strategic priority areas for libraries and archives.

The first convening, April 28th, at the District of Columbia Public Library in Washington, D.C., will once again address the National Digital Platform, which is the combination of software applications, social and technical infrastructure, and staff expertise that provide content and services to all users in the United States. The meeting will aim to discuss and identify areas that may be important to libraries for funding, future research, and other tangible outcomes.

The second convening, May 14th, at the Kansas City Public Library in Kansas City, Missouri, will focus on learning in libraries, both for library users and the profession as a whole. It will extend last year’s conversations around learning spaces and STEM and build upon strategic thinking on this topic going forward.

The third convening, June 2nd, at the Los Angeles Public Library in Los Angeles, California, will showcase libraries’ work to engage with their communities through the lens of partnerships and serving diverse needs. It will broaden the IMLS Focus conversation beyond our priorities and examine the characteristics of successful projects.

The three 2014 IMLS Focus meetings brought together approximately 150 in-person participants and 1,500 virtual participants.

I hope many of you will participate in these national meetings through the live webcasts and the #IMLSfocus Twitter conversation. We’ll be sharing more details as the dates grow closer.

Finally, our overall shift in focus is not just limited to library programs. IMLS Focus will also become the name of this year’s annual conference, which will highlight IMLS priorities, showcase our grantees’ work, and explore the latest thinking in museums and libraries. This conference will replace IMLS WebWise, which began 15 years ago to explore the ways museums and libraries were expanding into digital services. It will bring together grantees, potential applicants, and professionals working in museums, libraries, archives, and cultural heritage organizations. Please mark your calendar for the inaugural IMLS Focus Conference, which is anticipated to take place November 16-17 in Charlotte, North Carolina, and look for registration details this summer.

We look forward to these upcoming conversations and your input!

CORRECTION: The version of the Director’s Message issued on 3/18/2015 incorrectly noted Kansas City, Kansas, as the site of the second Focus convening. This version includes the correct location of Kansas City, Missouri.

My colleague Shari Stout lines up the fragile recording on the stage of the instrument and then steps back. The scan of the battered 130-year-old sound recording begins, as does our wait for a high-resolution image of the disc’s surface. Sometimes it takes hours.

Usually Shari and I pass the time reading and chatting with Peter Alyea, in whose audio digital conversion lab at the Library of Congress we are working. Space is tight. Carl Haber, visiting from his own physics lab at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL), sits an arm’s length away at the computer and monitors the scan. Carl’s colleague Earl Cornell, a continent away, often joins us by phone when we need his advice. This is a typical work session with IRENE, a leading-edge audio preservation system, scarcely a decade old, which originated at LBL. IRENE is an acronym for the steps involved in recovering sound from a recording: Image, Reconstruct, Erase Noise, Etc.

Peter Alyea, 2011. Courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Suddenly, with no warning, sound comes from the computer speakers, and we quiet down to listen. A voice recorded in the 1880s speaks, released from a disc that hasn’t been played since then.

We’ve repeated this process now with about a dozen recordings. And every time, at that moment when an old voice revives with the help of this new technology, I find myself awed and speechless, thrilled to the point that hair stands up on the back of my neck. It’s become my personal salute to those long-dead voices reaching us across time.

Shari and I have carefully carried recordings from our collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to the Library of Congress since 2011, when the Institute of Museum and Library Services began funding a new phase of Lawrence Berkeley Lab’s development of IRENE, a system for reviving sound from audio recordings too damaged or broken for ordinary playback. In that phase, our experimental recordings from the 1880s, made in Alexander Graham Bell’s Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C., joined items from collections at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, the University of Chicago’s South Asia Library, the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv, and the Edison National Historic Site.

Graphophone: recorded in October 1881 Content: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy. I am a graphophone and my mother was a phonograph.” Voice of Alexander Melville Bell, AGB’s father. Courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Our very unusual recordings are some of the earliest ever made, and they present special technical challenges to Peter, Carl, Earl, and IRENE. Each of these recordings predates any standardized format. Each represents an experiment with particular materials, like a special mix of wax and paraffin, or with a particular recording or playback method. Some were recorded with a vibrating stylus, others with a beam of light. All are fragile, some are badly cracked, and still others are deformed.

Thanks to our partners’ considerable efforts and to our generous funders, we have seen remarkable results. We’ve heard various male voices reciting Shakespeare, repeating nursery rhymes, and reading from publications of their day. And we’ve been able to identify speakers on two of the scanned discs as Alexander Graham Bell and his father, Alexander Melville Bell. My favorite recording so far is the first one we scanned: in homage to a favorite scientific instrument, one male voice enthusiastically articulates, syllable by syllable, “ba-ro-me-ter, ba-ro-me-ter, ba-ro-me-ter.”

And, just a few weeks ago, we opened an exhibition at the National Museum of American History to share our findings so far. Visitors can learn about both the Volta Laboratory recordings and our current efforts to revive them in “Hear My Voice”: Alexander Graham Bell and the Origins of Recorded Sound (through October 25, 2015; americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/hear-my-voice).

The cold and snow could not stop the nation’s cultural institutions from celebrating the fifth anniversary of Let’s Move! this February. Founded by First Lady Michelle Obama, this national initiative gets children moving and eating healthy foods. That is exactly what they did at The New York Botanical Garden, where our Carla Hall’s Culinary Kids Week (February 16-22) coincided with the Let’s Move! festivities. Children and families participated in a variety of hands-on activities and demonstrations focused on edible gardening and healthy eating.

Carla Hall receives help from an aspiring young chef for a delicious—and healthy!—broccoli pesto. Image from The New York Botanical Garden

The event brought together partner organizations from across New York City to offer dynamic perspectives on food. To kick off the festival, celebrity chef Carla Hall, co-host of ABC’s The Chew, took to the stage with some young volunteers to make a new twist on an old favorite: a savory broccoli pesto. It was quite the hit!

Throughout the rest of the week, other professional chefs hosted daily cooking demonstrations where they wowed the crowd, offered tips and samples, and shared their stories with aspiring young cooks. Visitors also engrossed themselves in worm-based composting, potting up edible plant seeds for springtime growing at home, grinding grain, sampling herbal teas, and other activities. At hands-on workshops, children became the chefs. Their culinary creations included salads, pickles, and even homemade pasta. “Excellent, enriching program and a knowledgeable, friendly staff,” one visitor commented. The event was described as “welcoming and wonderful.”

Visitors learn how to make worm bins, a skill they can use to make compost for home gardening. Image from The New York Botanical Garden

Carla Hall’s Culinary Kids Week was presented through our Edible Academy, a platform of edible gardening-based programs that engage children, families, and teachers in the entire garden-to-table process. Thanks to support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and other generous funders, The Edible Academy will soon be part of a year-round, indoor/outdoor complex—an edible gardening hub in New York City.

Programs such as Carla Hall’s Culinary Kids Week encourage visitors to make better food choices. We believe that such initiatives offer participants personal connections with and access to healthy foods. They also teach food preparation skills to help ensure that vegetables, fruits, and herbs are a part of every child’s life. These programs, combined with the many other wonderful Let’s Move! initiatives at museums and gardens across the country, truly are building a healthier future for today’s children.

Young chefs learn how to make nutritious, colorful, and delicious salads. Image from The New York Botanical Garden

About The New York Botanical GardenAn unforgettable departure from the everyday, The New York Botanical Garden is America’s premier urban garden. Its special exhibitions, seasonal programs, and engaging activities inspire visitors of every age and interest. The Botanical Garden is an ever-changing living museum, and a showplace of natural beauty and wonder. For more information, visit nybg.org or call 718.817.8700.